The Autonomy of Art Is Ordinary: Notes in Defense of an Idea of Emancipation

An essay-length argument for the autonomy of art in the present.

Over recent decades, a post-critical theoretical and methodological paradigm has become increasingly dominant in the human sciences. Proponents of this approach have come to dismiss the idea—central to all modern aesthetics—of the autonomy of art.

Written by critic and researcher Kim West, this book is a defence of art’s autonomy and addresses some of the major arguments against it in recent post-critical writings. West critique...